Real Madrid reaping rewards of homegrown development

If recent success is anything to go by, the club appear to be embracing the idea of integrating more academy products into the first team.

During their UEFA Super Cup victory over Sevilla, Real Madrid surprisingly set out a starting XI that featured four players who graduated from their academy.

Goalkeeper Kiko Casilla, right-back Dani Carvajal, midfielder Lucas Vazquez, and forward Alvaro Morata all started in what appears to be a change in philosophy from a Madrid who always preferred expensive talents from abroad to academy graduates.

Los Merengues also had Ruben Yanez, Nacho Fernandez, and Marcos Llorente on the bench, another promising sign of bringing along academy and reserve players into the first team.

In that same match coach Zinedine Zidane also gave a debut appearance to 20-year-old Marcos Asensio, purchased by the club in 2014 but sent on loan for the past two seasons.

The Spanish international repaid Zidane’s faith by playing all 90 minutes and scoring the opener in the 3-2 win.

There’s a sense of irony that one of the most notable galacticos in Zidane is pushing to play with more ‘Pavones’.

An example of such is the rise of Lucas Vazquez, who enjoyed a breakout season last year thanks to Zidane and at the expense of players like Isco and James Rodriguez, both of whom were brought in at great expense over the past few seasons.

Bizarrely it appears that Madrid and their main rivals Barcelona have done a role reversal – Madrid are trying to integrate more academy players into their squad while Barcelona appear to be doing the opposite.

Besides the regular starters in Gerard Pique, Jordi Alba, Andres Iniesta, and Lionel Messi, the Blaugrana aren’t integrating the academy players as much as before.